darkSpyro

If we drop him, he'll be leagues above the C-tier competition. It just won't make sense. I can acknowledge his perhaps being on the lower end of the B spectrum due to factors such as abundant Undead, but his winning percentage in C is just not C-tier. He takes 80% of the fights in C just standing still and spamming in their faces. He can't be there, it simply makes no sense.

Paramushroom is not the strongest B-tier guy out there. That's probably S2 Glacier Yeti, or Volcanor Eruptor if we don't move him. He doesn't have to be an upper-end B character, though, to be better than C. A .500 record is just the average, and going .400 (which is about what PP Shroomy does) makes him just as C-tier as going .600 in B makes Glacier Yeti an A-tier guy; not at all. The differences need to be more striking than 10% overall wins to bump a tier, otherwise we'd have ten tiers and it would be a convoluted mess. We've got to acknowledge "close enough" in tiers, and a bottom and a top in each tier while still being approximately the same strength is something we do take into account. Shroomboom losing to a slight majority of the B guys but beating an overwhelming majority of the C guys makes him a B-tier character, through and through.

My opinion on the best and worst of each tier:

S tier
Best Channeler Double Trouble
Worst:I dont know

A tier
Best: Joust jockey or Master blaster, or barberous avenger

Worst: S1 Blizzard brawler

B tier

Best: Tempest dragon, medea griffin, or barrier boost

Worst: S1 bone crafter or S2 blademaster

C tier

Best: Siren griffin or earthen avenger

Worst: S1 Pyromancer

D tier

Best: Bird blaster, or S1 typhoon titan

Worst: S1 Undead defender

E tier

Best: S1 Magmantor

Worst: S1 Total tongue.

At least we all agree that double trouble kills wrecking ball.

Believe it or not my brother is a beast as ultimate spinner Wrecking ball, and he has won against me as channeler Double trouble on rare instances.

Quote: Mrmorrises

My opinion on the best and worst of each tier:

S tier
Best Channeler Double Trouble
Worst:I dont know

A tier
Best: Joust jockey or Master blaster, or barberous avenger

Worst: S1 Blizzard brawler

B tier

Best: Tempest dragon, medea griffin, or barrier boost

Worst: S1 bone crafter or S2 blademaster

C tier

Best: Siren griffin or earthen avenger

Worst: S1 Pyromancer

D tier

Best: Bird blaster, or S1 typhoon titan

Worst: S1 Undead defender

E tier

Best: S1 Magmantor

Worst: S1 Total tongue.

I only agree with Magmantor & Master Blaster.

wow. your brother gotta be great at skylanders, so lemme rephrase that: well, at least we agree that double trouble beats magmantor eruptor.

I can usually cream him as Channeler Double trouble, but every 1 in 8 rounds he can win.

• Eruptor S2 / Magmantor moved to C Tier.
  
• Hex S2 / Shade Master moved to B Tier.
  

Any other thoughts on whether Eruptor S2 / Volcanor should be promoted to A Tier?

Also, quite importantly, any more news on Series 2 Prism Break, either path? I still want to know how decisive the trick Tashiji described really is?

i cant use the trick tashiji described. i am using crystaleer, and he is amazing, but i cant use the crystaldroppingwherethepulselasthit trick. he is definitely B tier material. volcanor eruptor is A. if you do a bit of heroics, he could be S, the only thing that stops him is ihis speed.

I've been looking back at the past few pages of this thread. Skybagel and gillgrunt987 have been right to point out a few unsorted upgrade paths that seem to have slipped through the net in this thread:
Sprocket / Gearhead,
Gill Grunt S2 / Harpooner,
Hothead / Oil Baron
and Stealth Elf S2 / Forest Ninja
These characters along with Prism Break S2 have still not been sorted! If anyone have reasoned opinions and findings to post about them then that would be great!

ive stated that oil baron needs to go next to burniator, or even higher. if the opponent gives you time, get the meteor, and its a sure 100 dmg. the oil bursts and the rain are amazing, too. he is a nice hybrid who belongs in A tier.

S2 Prism Break (Crystaleer) is an A-tier guy if I've ever seen one, simply because he does a ton of damage, has nice defenses himself, and can dominate at medium-high range while also protecting himself. I'll make the detailed case for why below, but I strongly support A-tier placement because:

First, he has an easily-abused, borderline broken strategy, like many A-tier guys. His Wow Pow pulse is excellent "punch" damage, and merely combined with what you get from contact beam damage (you must have one to use the other), you're looking at 100 damage. Better yet, if you tap the crystal drop button immediately after firing the pulse, it drops three crystals on your enemy's exact location for 40 each; multiples can hit, and usually will hit Giants. Follow it up with a refracted pulse (laser + pulse damage again), and you're looking at a five-hit combo strategy that does too much damage for characters below A to mount an effective counter to.

A-tier performance is exemplary. Drobot is an easy win due to elemental and strategic advantage, as are Sprocket and a nice trans-tier victory against Drill Sergeant, whose charges can be easily thwarted by crystal drops. In all honestly, there's not one Tech character that gives him trouble; he eats his elemental advantage alive. Dino-Rang and the Terrafins can't do damage high or hard enough to get Crystaleer before he gets them, even at close range, amounting to a pair of hard-fought, but consistent wins for him. Giants are just the right size to eat multiple crystals for big damage on occasion, and large targets for refraction, so the fact that he'll carry a slight majority of the matches against Treefolk Charger, Hot Head and Crusher shouldn't be surprising. Lumbering Laserer is an even match, though, and Swarm eats him alive. In fact, Swarm is his only real distinct weakness in A-tier, although arena choice will give a lot of battles to Wham-Shell, Flameslinger and Chill as well. The match-up with Zook depends mostly on arena and personal skill, as the two characters run almost identical styles of offense.

All in all, I've found no MAJOR areas of concern in A aside from Swarm. B-tier is just fodder to Crystaleer with this level of raw damage at his disposal (seriously; he almost does as much as Bash now), with only the Air characters causing problems, and even then, he wins against them often... except Swarm. Swarm is the most consistent thorn in Prism Break's side in the entire game.

However, I do recommend A rather highly for this one.

Quote: Thumpterra12

i cant use the trick tashiji described. i am using crystaleer, and he is amazing, but i cant use the crystaldroppingwherethepulselasthit trick. he is definitely B tier material. volcanor eruptor is A. if you do a bit of heroics, he could be S, the only thing that stops him is ihis speed.

Just rap on the crystal button repeatedly when you fire the pulse and they'll drop right after, on the location where the pulse hit your foe. Not impossible to dodge (he'd be S if it were) but highly effective and repeatable.

Quote: EgoNaut

I've been looking back at the past few pages of this thread. Skybagel and gillgrunt987 have been right to point out a few unsorted upgrade paths that seem to have slipped through the net in this thread:
Sprocket / Gearhead,
Gill Grunt S2 / Harpooner,
Hothead / Oil Baron
and Stealth Elf S2 / Forest Ninja
These characters along with Prism Break S2 have still not been sorted! If anyone have reasoned opinions and findings to post about them then that would be great!

Sprocket/Gearhead should be B. She has a great Hit-And-Run. She works especially well against chargers who have to charge something. Make the turret and run, make another one and run, and doing that you create tons of damage. Each hit does 16 (28 when IN the tank) and shoots very rapidly. Each one has about 50~ HP, and then explodes when it is done for another 50 damage! You're looking at 130 damage! in the tank it is almost twice as much! All that power takes one second too make. In the tank is great also! As mentioned before, it can do 28 damage now, and when you turn away too run, drop mines, extra 22 damage! And when you're done, leave it and let it explode when the enemy hits it! She is easily A Tier, but due to low HP she can't be A. Sprocket/Operator is in A, as it can actually do something up close. Gearhead Sprocket, if she gets trapped, she's done. She only has her mine which do 22/30! So my vote goes in for Sprocket/Gearhed being placed in Mid-Upper B Their. I can't test for awhile, but when i can ill post results for everyone to support my answer!

Gill Grunt S2/Harpooner is a beast! Easily C-A Material. You can just spam A in a game of Keep away. If they get close just shoot your triple cannon, cause great damage, and run away while they're pushed back.

Hot Head/Oil Baron I have done 0 testing with because I got him on Christmas Eve. As Thumpterra mention, he is a unique hybrid. This is true, he can start the rain, coat them in oil, charge meteor. So, you're looking at about 4 hit combo going on that inflicts major damage to any sorry foe going against him:
>Use Fire Rain (8-10?)
>Coat them in oil (10)
>Fire off a meteor (100)
>Use flamethrower (16-18?)

That is a deadly combo with about 140 damage inflicted in a couple seconds. The meteor also doesn't slow him down whatsoever. My vote goes to higher then Burninator, A or S.

Stealth Elf S2/Forest Ninja. I currently am about to play my L-Stealthy, and will report back in about a few hours or so. Forest Ninja was always my favorite path.


Hope I have helped!

Sounds good so far.

I going to whip some of these in tiers for now, and we can move them about later as we see fit:

• Prism Break S2 / Crystaleer placed in A Tier for now. More opinions wanted!
  
• Hot Head / Oil Baron placed in A Tier for now. We can move him about later as necessary.
  
• Sprocket / Gearhead placed in B Tier for now. More opinions wanted!
  

I would actually recommend dropping Gearhead Sprocket down to C or maybe even D tier (I'm mostly partial to D tier, but C works too).

The Mine Drops only drop 1 mine at a time without Operator, so they are still easy to avoid on this path. Even if you just keep spamming them, you can only have 6 active at a time and she drops them VERY slowly. You need the Operator path to get use out of those things.

The tanks still do low damage and can be destroyed quick, they only have 50 health. Quote: joerox123

Each hit does 16 (28 when IN the tank) and shoots very rapidly. Each one has about 50~ HP, and then explodes when it is done for another 50 damage!

No they don't, the tanks and turrets only do 8 damage and 14 when driving them, not 16 or 28. I just tried it and you are so wrong dude. The explosions do deal 50 damage, but they are VERY small and easy to dodge, it's only good against guys who are compeletly short-ranged and have no projectiles like Stealth (Pook Blade Saint, but not Forest Ninja) or Slam Bam. Also, the turrets take too long to make and you can't move while building them, leaving yourself vulnerable to attack (like a Hex issue with her Skull Rain).


Like Ignitor, Sprocket has equally low health (613 health to be exact) and is not very fast. What she lacks is speed, health, and long-range tactics. B tier is too good for her, there are plenty of medium and long range people there who can kick her butt with ease (except for Slam Bam). Ex: Shroomboom on both paths, Clockwork Dragon Drobot, Cynder (both paths), Super Shards Flashwing (also an elemental advantage), etc.

C tier may also be unfitting (though it's still fine with me). There also projectile and medium-ranged guys there too like Volcanor Eruptor, Jet-Vac Vac-Packateer (you got the path name wrong btw), Water Weaver Gill Grunt, Slime Serpent Zap, etc. Both B and C can demolish her tanks (and herself) at a distance, her low speed and health are also problematic.


D tier is most fitting for her to me. There are still a few ranged characters, but most of them have low damage outputs and will need time to destroy the tanks. They do have defenses against her mines and turrets though, and can catch up with her quite quick.

LightSpyro nailed it, and I agree with Gearhead going into D as well. Sprocket's best turret upgrade (2x turrets) is a standard upgrade that winds up benefiting Operator more than it does Gearhead. The tank just doesn't put out the damage necessary to make up for the unwieldy setup time.

^ Agreed. The tank also affords Sprocket no protection. One would hope that the opponent would at least have to do the normal level of damage required to destroy a turret to destroy the tank before Sprocket comes to any harm, but Sprocket sustains all damage directly while riding. Just that minor change would have rescued her from D, but I concur with DocCroc and LightSpyro as to where she should go. Operator is a very competitive PVPer, but Gearhead is clearly made for story.

• Sprocket / Gearhead moved to D Tier.
  

Victory is mine!!

I have some questions about Rubble Master Crusher, as I'm getting him in the mail sometime next week:

1. During the rock slide, is Crusher invincible?
2. The exploding boulder upgrade does not turn the rock slide into a suicidal attack, considering you're in essence blowing up yourself, because those boulders are you, correct?

Edit: and a question about Jet-Vac. Why is everyone suggesting Vac-Packeteer instead of Bird Blaster? Isn't bringing your opponent right up to you, in many cases, suicidal in PvP?

^ He's definitely not invincible, but certainly considerably harder to hit. Not every rock carries his HP with it. Also, the explosion is kind of like Ignitor's flame soul explosion; explosive effect, but immediately pieces you together in a set spot after use.

Quote: reshiramflame

I have some questions about Rubble Master Crusher, as I'm getting him in the mail sometime next week:

1. During the rock slide, is Crusher invincible?
2. The exploding boulder upgrade does not turn the rock slide into a suicidal attack, considering you're in essence blowing up yourself, because those boulders are you, correct?

Edit: and a question about Jet-Vac. Why is everyone suggesting Vac-Packeteer instead of Bird Blaster? Isn't bringing your opponent right up to you, in many cases, suicidal in PvP?

Because Bird Blaster is flat out useless in PvP. The Maxiumum damage only increases by 4 or 5, and the Super Shot doesn't work in PvP. Low damage, low versatility, you can't use the jet-pak very long, and NO knockbacking back your opponent.

Bringing your opponent isn't too dangerous if you're good in close range, the Vacuum helps with this a bit and racks up damage a bit. With the corkscrew attack, you're finally able to knockback your opponent and you can use the jet pack for a bit longer.

The vacuum does tons of damage up close and ticks rapidly, at least as C-tier characters go. You don't want to bring certain Skylanders close to you, but those ones mostly reside in A and S-tier, where Bird Blaster still stands far less of a chance.

Vac Packeteer also has escape tactics on his side; the corkscrew works precisely as LightSpyro says, and is a rather nice way to shield your retreat if the wrong type of character does get close.

Keep in mind that neither of Jet-Vac's paths are dominant or phenomenal, it's just that Vac Packeteer is considerably better and maybe even slightly above average, while Bird Blaster's attacks were definitely made with Story Mode in mind--and it shows.

And when you corkscrew it spins them around disorientating that.

Yeah, good point. Though I think I'll keep my Jet-Vac on Bird Blaster because my brother uses exclusively Bash/Terrafin and my sister exclusively uses Sunburn/Wrecking Ball/Double Trouble.

i just used prism break, and i could use the combo. it is amazing!!!!! it kills those shield dudes in 1 combo. it is: beam,pulse,drop crystals, and it dies!! amazing in battle too!

All we need to work on now is Harpooner! Come on, guys!

EDIT: And Forest Ninja

forest ninja is D tier. the scarecrows are fun to play with, but kinda low dmging. and theres that issue of not knowing where your going...

^ HAHA! No. It is B Tier, they do rapid 13, plus 18 for explosion. Plus, once you're gone they get damaged by those, and you can use your Wow Pow.


GG/ Harpooner should be A/B Tier you can spam A, then when they get near launch the anchors.


Anyone else agree that Crusher/Rubble Master and Swarm/Barberous Avenger should switch spots? Rubble Master is not that good, you are easily damaged in it. In Fact, it should be B in my opinion. Swarm/BA is amazing! 29 damage a swipe! Here is my combo that kills:

Two Swipes (58)
Charged Swipe (65)
Fly (9)
Butt Shoot (10)
Turn Around and shoot a few barbs (15 x 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9)
Repeat!

That is easily 160~ damage! Definitly S, whie Crusher is B.

umm, no. B is waaay to high for stealth elf.

as for swarm, he is OK, you just have to be good and understand the gmae to be really good with him, whereas with drill sergeant and double trouble, you can easily beat a wide variety of skylanders without having much skill. swarm is a finesse skylander who takes skill to use amazingly.

crusher is fine in his boulders. they do high dmg, especially when exploding. i like where crusher is.

Ah, can't wait to join in on this discussion again.

I'm late to Giants, as I just bought the Xbox and 3DS versions about three days ago. Currently just waiting for a few characters to come in the mail (bought all the newlanders/giants currently available), and I'll be right back at it!

I've made/discussed tier lists in many previous games, so I'll definitely chime in when I have a better understanding of all the new characters, and the new S2 remakes.

Interesting read so far though.

Finished my QUICK tests:

Swarm VS DT: Loss
Swarm VS. S2 DT: Win
Swarm VS. Crusher: Win
Swarm VS. S2 SOTF: Win
Swarm VS. S2 UD: Win
Swarm VS. Hex: Loss


That is all I have of S tier but he won: 4 out of 6. Meaning he one 67% o the time!

I can't imagine how Swarm could beat SotF Ignitor. Ignitor has fried him in seconds in literally every match the two have had in our house. I would call it a dominant advantage, even. How is your Ignitor's Elemental Power? Mine is 115 (or maybe 110; hard to recall), and Swarm is K.O.'d very quickly despite his high HP.

Crusher he definitely beats. He does seem to run even with Double Trouble, as your one win and one loss would indicate. Hex is tough for him to handle, I agree. U.D. Chop Chop is kind of even from my experience.

All in all, my results, aside from Ignitor, do coincide with yours. We do need to work more with Swarm, but he certainly does contend in S-tier to a fair degree. High HP and above-average damage will carry a character very far in this game.

Quote: Thumpterra12

i just used prism break, and i could use the combo. it is amazing!!!!! it kills those shield dudes in 1 combo. it is: beam,pulse,drop crystals, and it dies!! amazing in battle too!

If you need to extend the combo, blast a beam and pulse through the crystals you just dropped for even more carnage. He really does have a semi-broken offense with that Wow Pow.

EDIT: Also, I've found a way to use Stealth Elf's Wow Pow effectively as an alternative to Combo A, but it requires some timing. As you know, Stealth Elf (both paths) has an A+A+A combo, and it's very easy to use. However, it's also possible to substitute the Wow Pow for the ending of Combo A if you time your button presses correctly. Press A thrice in rapid succession to bypass Combo A and hold the button down on the third press--she'll use her Wow Pow with approximately the same delay as Combo A. I'm not sure why doing this reduces the charge delay, just that it does, and honestly, I find the quick-spinning Wow Pow to be a way better move than the linear and time-consuming Combo A for dealing damage.

So, if you do it right, this will happen: Three quick blade strikes, heavily reduced Wow Pow delay (for some reason), then spinning Wow Pow. It's actually looking more and more like they gave her a good ability after all, just that it requires considerable timing to use effectively.

^ Yes, that it is what i am saying. I haven't done any HC with L-Ignitor, but he does wear the +25 Crit. Hat. He won because Swarm flew away and was faster, and would swipe when i got the chance, when he was trying to hit mw htiw the fire.

Something some may not know about ignitor:
His mortar does 50 dmg on sotf.very high dmging.

out of Blizzard Brawler, Captain Crustation, and Ice Lancer, who would you say the best water element is?
im trying to put together a team of "best per element" and just cant desided on water.

Blizzard Brawler and Ice Lancer, it's a tie for me.


BTW I got S2 Whirlwind last night and I gotta say, her Wow Pow doesn't disappoint. It might even make her Tempest Dragon path (but not on Ultimate Rainbower, still crap) an A tier in PvP; although probably not.

I haven't tried it in any matches, but in Story Mode it totally kills. The clouds now shoot their own rainbows (but only once) and explode into rainbows when they expire, it lets them do even MORE damage now.


It may make a big improvement and move up a tier, but I've still got a few suspicions since I haven't tried it yet. It'd be great if someone else would test as well.

S2 Blizzard Brawler probably has a slight edge in my mind as the best Water champion, but Ice Lancer can be incredibly cheap in the right hands, so it's very hard to say. The biggest difference between the two is the speed at which Blizzard Brawler annihilates characters below his tier, though, as their results in A-tier are pretty much the same in terms of winning average.

You know, I have done the impossible with : I defeated an Ice Lancer Chill on Total Tongue.

Wow! Yer opponent must be amazing!!!! (And when i say "amazing" i mean amazingly bad)

My sister is a god with Ultimate Spinner S1 Wrecking Ball, and I can't seem to beat her, TC Tree Rex couldn't hit her, I kept putting S1 Bone Crafter Hexs bone wall up the wrong way or she would slip through while I was setting it up, Volcanor S1 Eruptor couldn't hit her because she would go right past as I was erupting, and I won 2 very close fights with Granite Dragon S1 Bash

So yeah, any ways to beat it?

Reset tree rex. Lumbering laserer will kill it. So will s2 drill sergeant. And drobot. And

I actually believe that marksman flameslinger is better than pyromancer. His dmg is low on pyromancer, and he can dash just as fast on marksman, and he has those high dmging arrows. How many times are you actually gonna draw a circle
In pvp?

Today I am getting L-Rod S2 (Hopefully)! And i will report back results! Back to Swarm:


See, Swarm can hold his own in S, and annihilates A! I will do A testing and come back, but he is great with skill.


Crusher: His HP+Defense are phenomenal, but they purposely give the edge too one path by giving them much needed defense. Ill do his testing today, he will get annihilated by s, he fits b MORE LIKE. The boulders are still clumsy and hard to control, and you're very vulnerable when you try too reassemble, meaning you will get killed.


Stealth Elf S2/ PBS is in A? Why? I thought she was godly, mine has all heroics, great stats, gold hat, level 15, and can't be touched. Ill o her too.
I am doing tons of testing today, anyone want me to try someone against their tier?

I have THE ONES IN MY gb. Just check there!

As i said before, swarm is a tad hard to use for newbies to skylanders. Drill sergeant is easy to control, as is stump smash. The requirments to S mean that they are easy to control.

Quote: joerox123

Today I am getting L-Rod S2 (Hopefully)! And i will report back results! Back to Swarm:


See, Swarm can hold his own in S, and annihilates A! I will do A testing and come back, but he is great with skill.


Crusher: His HP+Defense are phenomenal, but they purposely give the edge too one path by giving them much needed defense. Ill do his testing today, he will get annihilated by s, he fits b MORE LIKE. The boulders are still clumsy and hard to control, and you're very vulnerable when you try too reassemble, meaning you will get killed.


Stealth Elf S2/ PBS is in A? Why? I thought she was godly, mine has all heroics, great stats, gold hat, level 15, and can't be touched. Ill o her too.
I am doing tons of testing today, anyone want me to try someone against their tier?

I have THE ONES IN MY gb. Just check there!

I can very well see Barberous avenger Swarm going from A to S tier, same with Treefolk charger Tree rex. Swarm should be able to play keep away with flight and spam the barb blasts against Crusher, and maybe get away with it against Double Trouble. I've found Tree rex to do great against the A tier by just spamming the photosynthesis cannon and the charged shockwave slam. His most consistant loss in A tier would probably be Fright rider who can take advantage of Tree rexs sizemto pull of an entombment strike with the elemental bonus.

Quote: Thumpterra12

Reset tree rex. Lumbering laserer will kill it. So will s2 drill sergeant. And drobot. And

I actually believe that marksman flameslinger is better than pyromancer. His dmg is low on pyromancer, and he can dash just as fast on marksman, and he has those high dmging arrows. How many times are you actually gonna draw a circle
In pvp?

It isn't about drawing circles, although Supernova is nice when you can hit it. The real strength of Pyromancer is that all arrows leave fire-based field damage. Because of this, his best attack is the arrow volley and not Supernova. Spam that attack as much as possible, shoot standard arrows (they also leave a flame when they land) and stay as far away from your opponent as possible at any given time. He doesn't do a ton of damage, but he racks up endless wins simply because he can't be caught. He's the fastest character in the game, and one of the better purveyors of field damage. Patience is necessary of course, but against the vast majority of opponents, patience will be rewarded.

We seriously need to work in Harpooner and Forest Ninja before we can do anything else...

Forest Ninja C Tier? (Since it is argued both B and D but I lean more towards B-ish, she's still slightly overpowered)

C or D Tier for Harpooner?

^ Both B.

Why does it matter whether we work on and first? We could work on the other guys too like Season 2 or Season 2 (my top priority).

I dunno about but Foest Ninja is C tier in my opinion. The Wow Pow doesn't do much damage and takes a while to perform, but it's a little rapid and racks up damage faster than her primary combo. It's not enough to highly escape from D, but at least it gets her somewhere. Her scarecrows are still easy to avoid (unless your opponent is stupid; reaaallly stupid) and you can't even see yourself.

Yes, corest ninja's biggest weakness is the fact that you dont know where she is.